Patients being transported with significant injuries can expose the transport equipment and caregivers to copious amounts of body fluids, e.g., urine, blood, feces, etc. Therefore, management of these fluids is important for proper patient treatment, reduced infection, and easier decontamination. Additionally, for long term transport scenarios, it reduces the likelihood of pressure ulcer development.
Conventional products have utilized superabsorbent polymers to absorb these body fluids; however, conventional products encounter various deficiencies and limitations, such as gel blocking due to engorged superabsorbent polymers, poor absorbency under load, poor fluid distribution across the superabsorbent polymer, slow absorption rates and poor absorption capacity, as well as an inability to meet dimensional constraints and maintain the structural integrity of the superabsorbent polymer.
Regarding dimensional constraints, conventional products fail to achieve good fluid distribution to all regions of an absorbent pad. Therefore, these products compensate by adding more superabsorbent polymer material making the end product thicker or bulkier. This is undesirable in many applications such as adult diapers where discretion is important. In these applications, wherein the product is thicker than desired because of poor fluid distribution, gel blocking, and absorption under load issues. Moreover, structural integrity of the envelope or containment pouch for the absorbent pad can rupture due to excessively engorged superabsorbent polymer in regions that have poor fluid distribution.